Feb 27, 2022 GMM minutes

Start Time  6:05

End Time  6:40

Location: Virtual

Attendance

Reports 

Commodore:

This is the season kick off GMM. We are excited about up-coming year: a lot of work down last year. Recently we were awarded a grant from DBW which will allow us to buy some equipment. 

We have two new chairs: Allen O will be the new chair for sunday racing  and Lisa Dinh will be the new chair for Diversity outreach. The city of Berkeley is running workshops on Marina planning to which anyone is invited (look for Berkeley marina area specific plan). As a club we have officially released some letters of support for the plans and for dredging (the letters are on the website). This winter season has been surprisingly busy: we have been welcoming new members and are grateful.

Vice Commodores:

Thanks Tone for organizing recent parties and activities. If you aren’t on the mailing list yet, get on the mailing list. If you are on the list, let others know to get on. Open house will start up this year – checking in with keelboat skippers to see if they are comfortable, if we don’t get enough skippers comfortable we may scale back. Whether we can have more parties and events depends on covid infection rates in the area – mask up at the club house and take precautions please.

1rst Vice:

Grant from DBW will go toward two new boats (originally specced as RS Quests, but we are looking into getting RS Toura’s instead) to replace JY’s. We think they will be a good addition to our fleet and increase teaching capacity.  As the season starts up we will start with repair clinics. As usual, please continue to report issues with boats and let us know if you need help fixing anything. 

2nd Vice

New team coming on board for the rear commodore. One of the senior projects done this fall is a revised guide for novice windsurfers to use as a reference point when they join the club. It primarily covers the basics of launching and equipment use at CSC. We would also like to recruit volunteers for activities to get ready for the season e.g. an adopt-a-sail event to make room for new sails. 

Good news: 4 new SUPS on the ways – but all the other equipment ordered this year has not shown up yet, but we are hoping to get it by may or june. Until then we do have plenty of equipment. 

Youth lessons will start at the same time as regular lessons on April 9.

Thanks to Eric Lee and intros to new Rear commodores.

3rd Vice: 

Daisy and Sea Horse are back in service after a long hiatus.  Sea Horse was out of the water a couple times, following a rudder failure and a subsequent questionable repair job that we thankfully caught quickly.  Thank you Sheldon for putting the screws to KKMI, who then really stepped up to the plate to do everything to make it right.  She is back with the best rudder feel a Commander has seen since the 60s.

Daisy was down for routine standing rigging replacement that unearthed a serious mast compression post issue that turned into a months-long repair.  Huge thanks to Greg for finding the issue, coming up with an appropriate fix, and getting her back to sailing.

Now that those two Commanders are back in action, our 3rd Commander, Uncle Donald, will be going in for hopefully a much more routine bottom job and new standing rigging.

Rear commodore:

Rear Commodore for Windsurfing:

Program goals for 2022: We are adding additional clinics this year to support member advancement through ratings. One focus this year is instructing instructors: We want to help instructors develop instructional skills in order to make them feel prepared and successful, as well as increasing pedagogical consistency for our student members. Look for clinics coming on line as the season approaches. Another goal is to foster opportunities for community engagement, so new members coming through the windsurfing trek  feel like full members as early as possible. Novice and Youth classes start Saturday, April 9 this year.

Rear Commodore for Sailing: 

Dinghy Instruction Since Dec 1 compare to same period 2 years ago (pre-COVID)

• We are teaching 65% more students overall 
• Breakdown by teaching day: Mondays 61% more, Thursdays 315% more, Saturdays 46% more
• We've had some low wind/no wind Saturdays recently, and we've used the time will – land school and rigging tests. Thanks to all who helped with this.
• Exactly the same number of ratings earned in the same period (7 Novice and 5 Junior)
• Lots of demand, which we are satisfying thanks to our instructors

Keelboat Instruction

• Basic instruction has not been working well for some time. Problems include large demand, not enough instructors to meet this demand, and no clear progression path for students. Lack of daylight in the winter has also impacted this negatively.
• Thanks to the instructors who have kept this program going, and special thanks to Pierre Nedelec for coordinating lessons (even from France). 
• Active instructors and I have been working on changing this for the past few months, and we will roll out these changes in March.
• Core concepts:
  • Structured levels of learning, starting with a dockside introduction (Keelboat Faire), followed by a written test (online), and 4 levels of on the water learning.
  • Lessons will be offered at specific levels, and progress will be recorded on the digital White Card.
  • These changes cover basic instruction. After going through this, students will connect to more personalized, advanced instruction focused on the Senior rating.
• Students and instructors should benefit from this. Students will have a clear progression path and will get more focused lessons. Instructors will be able to plan lessons better.
• This is an experiment, and we will evaluate it in several months. This will include getting feedback from students and instructors.
• Thanks to all who participated, especially to David Fraser, who drove the process.

Upcoming Programs

• We have scheduled the 2022 Fast Tracks, and Mike Jones has stepped up as overall Fast Track Coordinator. This job was Mike's idea, and it involves a more consistent running of Fast Tracks, but also a more global flow of signups.  For example, those who don't get into one will get priority for the following one; you will be able to sign up in advance for any Fast Track.
• Nicole Faghihi is Advanced Dinghy coordinator. These will start inMay, every Monday evening except for Fast Tracks and holidays. These sessions are a must if you want to get a senior rating.
• Senior Study Group starts tomorrow evening and will go through May. We do these combined classroom and practical sessions each winter to prepare members for the Senior rating, and in particular for the Senior written test.

Summary

We're doing really well in most areas, and we're taking steps to get basic keelboat instruction working well. All of this depends on you instructors, and I thank you for all your teaching and for all of your ideas.

Port Captains 

No updates

Secretary

No updates.

Treasurer:

Report attached at bottom of doc.

Comments/Questions from members:

Ben: Shout out and thanks to people who volunteer!  Could someone elaborate on the new boats.  

Memo: RS sailing has come out with a new boat called a Toura: a stretched out quest with more sail area than venture or quest  – 2 -7 people.  On the instruction side this will make it easier to have more people in a boat.

Adam: Acknowledge Nicho’s efforts to be connected to marina planning.  Nicho – also should acknowledge Camile’s work as marina planning chair and to others who have been organizing meetings and writing letters.